Video: Chris Harris Gets Behind the Wheel of Toyota GT-86 (Scion FR-S, Subaru BRZ)
Chris Harris has an interesting way of expressing his opinion about every vehicle that he drives. To say the least, he is brutally honest in most cases and sometimes it does not sit well with the manufacturer or die-hard enthusiasts of a particular car. Now comes Chris’ chance spend a good 20 to 30 minutes behind the wheel of the Toyota 86, or aptly known as the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ here in America.
Chris Harris heads to Spain and takes the new Toyota 86 for a flogging. See it in action and what Chris has to say about Toyota’s new sports coupe in the video below.
Subaru Prepares For The Sno*Drift Rally
David Higgins, on the throttle.
Subaru may have pulled out of WRC competition, but the brand is still very much active in the Rally America Championship. Travis Pastrana has moved on to NASCAR, but Dave Mirra is back for the 2011 season, joined by fellow driver David Higgins. Both will pilot Vermont Sports Car built Impreza WRX STIs for the 2011 season, which kicks off with this weekend’s Sno*Drift Rally in Atlanta, Michigan. The Sno*Drift event features some 130 miles of racing, over snow and ice covered roads. Nearly 33% of the event is run at night, and northern Michigan’s ever-changing winter weather usually creates some interesting challenges on the course. Rally America doesn’t allow the use of studded tires, which puts a heavy emphasis on car setup and smooth driving. Check out Mirra and Higgins shaking down their 2011 cars in the video below.
Rally America has lost some big name drivers in the off-season, which won’t help to boost the series popularity. Ken Block appears to be focusing on WRC, since he’s not running this year’s Sno*Drift (but I wouldn’t count him out for next month’s 100 Acre Wood Rally, which Block seems to win every single year). Travis Pastrana is figuring out the whole go fast, turn left thing, which leaves Dave Mirra as the closest thing Rally America has to a rock star driver. Look for Mirra to mature as a driver this year, since he clearly understands the importance of working with a co-driver to develop solid pace notes. In rallying, being fast is less important than being smooth and consistent, since nothing chews up time more than mistakes and crashes. Like the old racing wisdom says, “To finish first, first you’ve got to finish”.
Categories: AutomotiveAddicts Tags: Prepares, Rally, Sno*Drift, Subaru
2011 Subaru Impreza WRX fills out with big bro’s wide body
The car has ditched its Clark Kent glasses in favor of a look that’s been distilled from the mighty STI – one part Gundam, two parts track-hardened awesome. The move is destined to give the oft-neglected Rex the attention it deserves in the Subaru stable for the first time in years, though the change is more than a set of fenders. Subaru’s engineers have poured over the car to wring even more potency out of one of the tuning universe’s most capable platforms straight from the factory.
It’s easy to think that the big news here is the WRX’s new sheetmetal, and to some extent, it is. By gracing the WRX with the same wide shell as the more sinister STI, Subaru was able to incorporate a few mechanical feats that would have been otherwise impossible under the old skin.
2011 Subaru Outback adds in-car Wi-Fi
Ford’s SYNC does 3G WiFi, and with the help of Autonet so do GM, Chrysler, Avis, some school buses and now Subaru. The Japanese automaker has put WiFi on the options list of the 2011 Subaru Outback for the pretty standard price of $499 as a dealer-installed option. That’ll get you an encrypted connection good within 150 feet of the car, and it can be used while the car is in motion. The subscription is $29 per month after that, and Subaru is gracious enough to pick up the first three months for you.
First Drive:2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI
When Subaru introduced the STI in the U.S. for the 2004 model year, it did so using a four-door compact sedan with the subtlety of a ruffled hot-pink tuxedo. After all, with BBS alloy wheels and Brembo brake calipers painted a sparkly gold that could dress up a bass boat, a gaping hood scoop that could double as a badger den, and a giant rear wing that looked like the handle on Paul Bunyan’s lunchbox, the STI didn’t exactly blend into the automotive landscape. Nevertheless, it was blindingly quick, an absolute blast on a curvy road, and about as reliable as any ordinary Subaru, which is to say virtually bulletproof. Naturally, Subaru found plenty of enthusiastic takers. But as the STI’s first generation neared the end of its lifecycle, Subaru was already hawking more mature versions; the 2007 Limited, for instance, came with silver BBS wheels, black Brembo calipers, and a low-profile lip spoiler.
For the second generation, which made its debut for 2008, Subaru took the STI’s maturation to the next level, ditching the sedan body style in favor of a hatchback form and losing the humongous hood scoop and rear wing. Sure, the new four-door hatch still featured a scoop and a wing, just modestly sized. And despite functional side vents, bulging fenders, and larger 18-inch alloys, the hatch came across as understated in light of its predecessor.
Categories: Auto Review, Car Review, Subaru Tags: Subaru
2009 LA Auto Show Preview: Subaru WRX STI Special Edition headed for U.S. showrooms
For U.S. Subaru enthusiasts, it has long seemed like the folks at Fuji Heavy forgot that we might be interested in special-edition WRX models too. New hotted-up variants of the all-wheel-drive hero car have been released in the UK and elsewhere on what seems like a monthly basis, but here in the States, we’ve largely done without. Thankfully, at last there is just such a U.S. model in the pipeline, and it’s headed for the LA Auto Show.
The the 2010 WRX STI Special Edition starts by utilizing the suspension package form the JDM WRX STI Spec C (1mm thicker rear antisway bar, stiffer springs and more robust rear subframe bushings), and the model also inherits the charcoal 18 x 8.5-inch 14-spoke alloys from that car as well.
Categories: Hatchback, LA Auto Show, Subaru Tags: Subaru
